


Love Shot

by blod_reina



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe, Drama, Enemies to Lovers, Family Issues, Hanhun - Freeform, HunHan - Freeform, Lemon, M/M, Romance, mafia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:13:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29782836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blod_reina/pseuds/blod_reina
Summary: Sehun could no longer stand living among the joint-stock companies that had businesses as a mask for money laundering, bribery, and fraud. His father, Oh Shin, was an important member of the Korean mafia and the boy grew up listening to his stories of execution and blackmail, especially about his unfinished feud with a Chinese mafia family, the Lu's. He spoke of the plans to extinguish his enemies with amusement, but some time ago Hun had begun to suspect that the enemies were not the others, but his own father. Han was the only survive member of the Chinese family and was unaware of the danger he was in. Sehun didn't know him, but he felt he needed to warn him, so that he would have at least a small chance to fight.
Relationships: Lu Han/Oh Sehun
Kudos: 3





	1. Against Time

**Author's Note:**

> I started this story after my best friend inspired me with Hunhan 💘 hope you enjoy! She is very important to me, so I decided to make an English version as well.
> 
> IMPORTANT NOTICE: the story oscillates between Sehun's and Luhan's points of view.
> 
> The fic has a little trailer that I made myself, for those who want to see it, just [click here.](https://youtu.be/vRxbeCgr0V0)  
> 

On the table was a picture of a young man with information such as his cell phone number and address. I knew this young and smiling looking face well, who was actually four years older than me. Lu Han, whom my father had been stalking for months. I looked away from the photograph and looked at the screen that showed him in real time, recorded by cameras installed in the cars that my father, Oh Shin, had sent to follow him. The plan was to approach him as soon as he had the opportunity, kidnap him, torture him, kill him, without leaving any suspicion.

"You can't do that just because he's the son of the guy you hated. You already killed his parents, why do you continue?", I stood up to him.

I could no longer stand the limited liability companies that had businesses as fronts for money laundering, bribery and fraud. My genitor was an important member of the Korean mafia and I grew up listening to his stories of execution and blackmail, especially about the unfinished feud with a Chinese mafia family: the Lu's. We had been living in China for months because of his thirst for revenge. He talked about his scheme to completely extinguish his opponents with amusement, but I had begun to suspect some time ago that the enemies were not the Lu, but my own father. Han was the only member left, and he had no idea of the danger he was in, having grown up not knowing that his family was part of the Chinese mafia.

"Son, son... No matter how much I explain it, you never seem to understand that if a member of a mafia organization dies, everyone related to him must die as well."  
"What would you say if someone hated you and wanted to kill me for it?"  
"Only an idiot would try to kill you, Sehun. He would know that he would be hunted forever", said my father, smiling triumphantly, without showing any saddened reaction. "And you're well trained and protected."  
" _Ridiculous_ ", I whispered to myself. 

I was sick of the whole thing. Ever since Shin had decided his purpose, right after he had achieved his triumph of killing the boy's parents a year ago, I couldn't look at that screen and think it was fair. I didn't know Lu Han, but I felt I needed to warn him, so that he would have at least a small chance to fight. I discreetly wrote down his cell phone number on the palm of my hand, the address I knew, a convenience store very close to the building I was in. My father spent most of his time in that commercial space, which, to anyone who tried to find out, only sold computer software, but in reality was an intelligent espionage system. I put on the gloves I used to ride my motorcycle on cold days like this, filled a bucket with water, and walked over to where the building's electrical system was located using the blind spots of the security cameras. It was time to make it happen. Shin had made sure that I knew every inch of that building, in case we needed a strategic escape, after all he was always involved with dangerous people. 

In the power panel there were a few exposed wires as I imagined, I was hoping to generate a short circuit on contact with water. I stayed as far away as possible and mentally counted to three. I covered my face and moved further away as I witnessed a small explosion. Everything went dark. I laughed with relief. I turned on the flashlight on my cell phone just to get to the underground parking lot. I opened the gate manually and left the building on my black motorcycle, throwing the bucket I had used into a dumpster. I sped close to where Luhan was standing, I spotted him in the distance buying a drink. My heart was racing, but I wouldn't turn back, not anymore. The power cut in the building would guarantee me some time without real-time monitoring, but I still needed to avoid the cameras surrounding the boy, they would guarantee images to be seen later. However, I knew exactly where they were and that they were focused only on the boy. I plugged the bluetooth headset with microphone into my ear, got off the bike, in order to get closer without drawing attention, while I put on a cap and the hood of my cold jacket. I called as a stranger at the number I had written down in my hand and put the cell phone in my pocket. I watched him look at his cell phone and decline my call.

"Come on... Pick up", I pleaded aloud, calling back.

He walked out of the store and checked his cell phone. _"Hello"_ , was what I heard in Chinese as I watched him bring the device to his ear. I wasn't so good with Luhan's language, but I had information that he also spoke Korean, so I answered in my native tongue.

"Luhan, stop what you are doing right now", I tried to be brief.

Soon the men who worked for my father would discover the problem with the power, if they hadn't already. In any case, they would still have the job of probably having to change an entire power panel and configure the appliances.

_"Excuse me, who is it?"_ , he said in Korean. Confused, but at the same time very polite.  
"I can't tell you my name, your cell phone is tapped." I thought about using a fake name, but for some reason I wanted to be truthful with the boy. "I am here to help you, but I need you to trust me. I don't have much time. You are being followed."  
_"Is this a trick?"_ He cracked a smile that would have been charming if I hadn't been so tense. _"Is that you, Baozi?"_

The nickname made me understand that he was referring to his friend and neighbor in the condominium where he lived, Kim Minseok. They were very close, the same age and the boy was Korean like me, although he had been living in China for five years when he was hired by Luhan's father to protect him. Han did not know, but we did, that Xiumin, as he was known, was a trained agent. Everything came from the information Shin had collected, but my interest in details of Luhan's life was great, even I didn't understand why. 

"Try to look discreetly to your right", I said, figuring out how to make him believe what was happening. 

Watching him from afar, he unassumingly moved his head to the indicated side. 

"See that black car parked at the corner of the street?"  
_"Yes, what about him?_ His voice sounded more serious now.  
"The people inside have been following you for months and are just waiting for an opportunity to kidnap you."  
_"Kidnap me? I don't even know you, how can I believe that?"_

Now he looked irritated, but his posture indicated concern as he began to look sideways and walk in the opposite direction of the car.

"Please continue to act normally so that they don't notice. Just go back to your apartment through the busiest streets you can find, I will accompany you from afar and help you. Don't worry, nothing will happen now." 

Han stopped on the sidewalk and seemed to think for a moment. 

_"Okay"_ , he said at last and walked with hurried steps. _"If that's not true..."_  
"Don't run, Luhan!", I interrupted him. "Walk normally. They will follow you anyway. Your building is not far away, you'll make it, don't worry."  
_"How do you know where my apartment is?_ , he asked, but I ignored it, noticing the car sent by my father that was now starting to follow the boy.

The day was cold, but I was sweating under my sweater. I couldn't be discovered to be able to really help, the next few days were the final ones for Shin's impeccable plan.

_"Are you there?"_ I noticed him drawing my attention.  
"They are on the same street as you." I watched the boy discreetly notice the presence of the car again. "Get in, lock the door, don't go out, and don't meet anyone until I contact you again!"

I hung up. I took a deep breath and hurried back to my motorcycle, but not by the same route as before. I felt an enormous pressure in my head, I needed to get back to the company Oh. I realized that everything was still without power when I had to open the gate manually, as when I left. I parked again next to my father's car. I turned on the flashlight again and went straight to the "control room" where Shin was almost always found. I realized that my arms were shaking. I heard the loud swearing already before I entered the room.

"What happened to the building?" I walked in, asking as if I didn't know anything. "I went out to buy a bubble tea, came back and everything was out."  
"THOSE BASTARDS COULDN'T FIX THIS POWER OUTAGE!" He pointed at his contractors and then put his fingers on his temples. "There was a short circuit, someone tried to sabotage us."

I felt a craving. I was expecting the worst.

"I bet it was that son of a bitch Hyo-Sonn", my father referred to a gang spy in his team who had recently been unraveled and escaped.  
"You need to change the security guards in this place", I said, frowning and pretending to believe his hunch. He agreed.  
"I was told that the Han boy had come home in the meantime. I thought that today we would have a chance."

_"If everything goes right, you won't even have a chance"_ , I thought as I left the place. Now I needed a plan. The night dragged on. It took me a while to get to sleep because I couldn't stop thinking about the next day until I finally decided what to do. I woke up early and went to my father's room. He was sleeping. A certain sadness and guilt invaded me, even though Shin had never been a real father to me. 

"I'm sorry", I muttered more to myself. 

I took all the money I had saved, since I could not even consider using a card, put on a black mask and left. I bought a simple post-paid cell phone in any store, along with the chip, and also two tickets to the National Museum of China, which I knew would be crowded. It was always crowded on Saturdays. I put one of the tickets in the cell phone case. It would be the right place to meet Luhan. He was still being monitored 24 hours a day, including the audios and messages on his tapped cell phone. I needed to find a way to give him the new cell phone. I decided that I would ask a contact who owed me one to do it. My father didn't know him, but I wondered if this could be a problem later, I didn't want to involve anyone, but it was the only way. My contact left the box at the entrance of the building, wearing a mask and gloves, which was not unusual in the cold weather. We agreed that he would tell me it was an urgent delivery. After not much time waiting, I watched Luhan receive the package. I called on the cell phone that I had already prepared to be used. 

_"Hello?"_ I heard his voice.  
"I can't tell you anything on a cell phone. I sent you a ticket to the National Museum, we need a busy place for our safety. Take a cab and throw away your cell phone, use this new one. Be in the main lobby at three o'clock, I'll meet you."  
_"This is crazy"_ , he looked lost and I felt bad about it.  
"I need you to trust me."  
_"Can I at least know who you are?"_  
"Call me Sehun."

I was sincere, now there was no longer any danger of identifying myself, Shin would not have the audio of this call. A few minutes of silence began to distress me.

_"Okay."_ He sighed.  
"See you later", I said goodbye.  
_"Hey"_ , he said and waited a second. _"Thanks for yesterday."_  
"Don't thank me yet." I hung up.

I went back to my father's house and began to prepare myself never to return. I took a backpack that had been sitting there for a while and began to fill it with what I had bought on the way: a dark blue cold sweater and two pairs of clothes that looked like the uniforms of the museum cleaning staff, a common style in uniform stores. I also bought a new cold sweater for myself, which I have already put on. All in cash. I sat down in front of my computer to do something that my father had taught me, but that I never needed: fake credentials. We had the necessary equipment at home, "perks" of living with the master of fraud. My mind was working out a strategy that seemed too absurd. I wrote a note to my father saying that I would be spending a few days at a friend's farm and that I might not get a signal. He had never paid attention to my friendships and outings, so I would risk saying that he would fall for this, which would give me more time. I had to buy another simple cell phone for myself as well, and abandon the old one, in order to ensure safety. Anything was possible when it came to my father. I still had a good amount of money left over. The motorcycle would be a big problem, so I decided on a cab. At 2:30 pm, when I was already in the crowd in the lobby of the museum, I put the phone back on. I called the number that now belonged to Luhan.

"Are you here already?", I asked when he answered.  
_"Yes"_ , he stated, being direct, I mentally thanked him for not asking a million questions.  
"How are you dressed?"  
_"White sweatshirt and cap from Supreme, the sweatshirt has a hood."_ "I am wearing a black hooded sweatshirt."  
_"It didn't help, there are millions of guys dressed like that here."_  
"No problem, I've seen you. There are two people who are here to follow you. Do exactly as I say... please", I added after a pause so as not to sound rude, but I was nervous. 

I instructed him on how to blend in with the crowd to throw off my father's agents, I knew his tactics very well, I had seen them in action since I was a child. I approached him unannounced, taking advantage of the commotion of people taking pictures. I discreetly put my right hand on his shoulder, he looked at me, startled, and lowered the cell phone from his ear. I gestured for him to follow me. I guided him to the staff restroom that I found out where it was by observing it before Luhan arrived. I checked with the corners of my eyes first to see if any security guards were watching us, luckily it was too busy a day for them to pay attention to the place. I put us in one of the empty stalls and closed the little door, its extension went all the way to the floor so no one would see that there were two people there. It was too tight for both of us. I noticed that he looked surprised. 

"Nice to meet you, _hyung_ ", I whispered, breaking the uncomfortable silence and bowing slightly, clumsily, trying to be more formal, something I had completely forgotten amidst the tension.  
"I thought you were older", Luhan finally confessed, looking away. "What is all this, anyway?"  
"Long story, I can't tell you everything here."

I took out of my backpack the fake uniforms and credentials with our faces stamped on them. 

"Put this on."

Luhan looked incredulous.

"You've trusted me so far, a little more won't hurt. I'll turn around", I said, pulling off my own clothes and stuffing them as best I could into my backpack. "Give me your clothes when you're done." He obeyed, I saw that he already had the credential intended for him hanging around his neck. "Let's get out of here."  
"Aren't you going to tell me anything else?"  
"I can't. Not yet."

I left looking around. The bathroom was still empty, I threw my backpack on my back and we went out into the corridor. Maybe my backpack would attract attention, "dammit," I thought, but I would have to risk it. I hoped that the way we were dressed, the credentials, and the crowd that was in the place that day might give us easier passage through the security guards to places allowed only for employees. And it worked, I breathed a sigh of relief when we were in an empty hallway, out of the gaze of my father's agents. 

"We need to get out somewhere unusual, maybe an emergency exit. Help me look for it", I said. 

Luhan went on to explore the place as I did. It seemed like ages before we found each other, and I was tired of walking when Han called out to me. The door led to a metal structure outside, probably behind the museum, as we could not see its parking lot, but trees and some buildings in the distance. There was no one passing by.

"Quickly", I said, and we climbed down the structure using metal ladders. 

We ran among the trees, looking to the sides, until we were hidden enough. When we stopped my heart felt like it was going to come out of my mouth. There was no time to rest. 

"Here, put your clothes back on, but wear this sweater." I handed over his pants and shirt, along with the cold sweater I had bought. "And this." Also a mask. I turned to put my own clothes back on.

With the hoods of the sweatshirts over our heads and the masks on our faces, we left our uniforms behind and started walking towards the streets.

"Let's get a cab", I said as we approached the avenue.


	2. Under Pressure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where to go after all this? Complicated to run from Oh Shin's clutches. haha. Thanks for being here! Enjoy 💘

I looked around and didn't see anyone suspicious, so I called some cab that was passing by. I asked it to take us to a little roadside inn that I knew, it was simple and far away from the center of Beijing. As soon as we got out and the car drove away I was surprised by someone, who threw me against a wall, holding his arm against my neck. I was about to try to react when I heard Luhan ask a name.

"Xiumin?" I realized that it was Luhan's friend and also security.  
"Who are you?", the man asked, still pressing me against the wall. I had completely forgotten about him.  
"I've come to help, Minseok _hyung_ ", I used his real name and not the one he adopted when he met the Lu's, his eyes widened. "Yes, I know who you are. Shin plans to kill Luhan, I am here to help", I mentioned my father's name as if it were a stranger.

He let go of me, sighing with irritation.

"What the fuck is going on?", Luhan exasperated, for the first time appearing irritated. He didn't blame him, he was also tired of being taken from one place to another without explanation.  
"Get in the car and stay down", Xiumin said.  
"Why did he call you Minseok?", Luhan asked after a few seconds of silence, while Xiumin drove with us in the back seat, their heads down and still covered by their sweaters. 

Kim's expression softened. He could tell with certainty that the boy really had affection for his friend of the same age, even if he was initially hired to protect him.

"Hannie", he said fondly and sighed. "There are some things I need to tell you."

Luhan looked tense and his eyes were focused on the rearview mirror that allowed him to see his friend's face.

"My real name is Kim Minseok, although I don't even recognize myself that way anymore." He laughed. "Your father... He... Saved me five years ago. " 

He stopped talking and seemed to try to think before continuing. I knew that Luhan trusted him just by the way he was staring at him, his eyebrows showing his concern.

"Everything I am going to tell you now will seem shocking, but given the events of the day, you need to know. Your father was a member of the Chinese mafia and consequently you and your mother were involved." Luhan didn't even move or blink, I wondered if he was still remembering to breathe. "She knew, but they decided never to tell you, so that you could live without the constant fear they carried. Five years ago, I was about to be killed in Korea for getting involved with the wrong people, but your father knew me and saw the best in me, even if I didn't. I know what you must be going through in your life. I know what must be going through your mind, but your parents were not bad people. Being involved with the Mafia implies a lot of bad things, but he was already in this world and had a reputation to maintain. With the power he had, he managed to get me out of death and hired me to live here and protect you, without you knowing."  
"But", Luhan interrupted, apparently confused. "We are the same age, how is this possible? " Xiumin laughed, but his face was sad.

"I grew up in this life, Hannie, I grew up to fight. When I saw you hurrying back to the building the other day, looking sideways, I suspected something was wrong. I followed you to the museum today and saw everything that happened. I lost sight of you after you passed the security guards. When I was already in the car, finally decided to go back to the apartment to think about what to do, luckily I saw you getting into a cab and was able to follow you. Protecting you has become my life mission, not least because when I approached you you actually welcomed me as your friend."

I watched Luhan's face blush and his eyes going lower.

"You're my best friend", he said softly, and I felt like I was invading his personal space by sitting there listening to them talk. I turned to the window to feign disinterest, but I felt bad for Luhan. It must have been frustrating to discover that so much of the information about his life was hidden from you. 

"I'm sorry about all this, Hannie." I heard Xiumin say.

There was a moment of silence until Luhan replied that everything was fine and put his hand on Kim's shoulder and squeezed lightly. I could only see through peripheral vision in the position I was in. 

"I will take you to a safe place that your father has prepared for emergencies. The place has never been used, so there is no way of knowing of its existence. "

He was right, for I had never heard Shin mention such a thing. A new concern arose in my mind that made my muscles stiffen: if Xiumin found out who I was, the son of the man who intended to kill Luhan, he wouldn't let me help him. And I wanted to help him, I was determined to do so.

**  
.**

 ****

 **LUHAN**

The rest of the trip went on silently stretching into the early morning, but my head was racing, paranoid about the whole situation. My eyes stuck to the darkness of the road trying to organize my thoughts. My life had completely changed when I had learned, from an unknown Korean, that I was at risk of death. Now the person I trusted most had told me that my dead father and mother were part of the Chinese mafia, and he was hired to protect me. I still had no idea why exactly I was being persecuted, but I had begun to suspect that my parents had not died from a car accident, as others had led me to believe a year ago. It was still an open wound. My parents had always been very traditional and our closeness was always limited by this. Now I pondered that maybe it was to protect myself sentimentally from what might happen. "It didn't work," I thought. I missed them anyway, I still did, but there, in that car, I could only feel away from my own being, as if I were a third person watching a story unfold. Sehun was extremely quiet next to me. I didn't know him, knew absolutely nothing about him besides his name, but I needed to trust this boy to survive.

"We're here", Xiumin said as he parked the car, after we had driven for a long time along a small dirt road surrounded by trees. In front of us was a small house.

We all got out of the car and Minseok hurried to open the door, turning on the lights in the first room. It looked cozy inside even though the outside looked not so inviting. 

"Listen well, Hannie", he said, holding my shoulders and looking deep into my eyes. I held his gaze, attentive. "What you're seeing is just a disguise. In fact, there is a bunker prepared with food, weapons, medicine and everything you need."  
"What do you mean?, I asked. "Aren't you staying?"  
"I can't, I'm the first person they'll be on the trail of when they realize you're gone. And because it's a surprise to me, I guess it's a surprise to everyone that you are being helped by someone else, right?"

Now he looked directly at Sehun, as if to confirm that he was right about him being the element of surprise. Sehun nodded, his countenance inexpressive, but self-assured. "Don't worry about me", he hastened to say when I opened my mouth to protest. "I'll be fine and so will you, it's better this way." 

I could see in his eyes that this was his final word, I decided to remain silent. 

"A car is hidden in a garage at the back of the house, bulletproof."

I was amazed. It was impossible for all that to be true, by the time I realized it, Xiumin had already placed a set of keys in my hands. 

"From the car, the house and the bunker, take good care of it", he said before walking towards Sehun. "I trust you to help him."

His tone was firm, but didn't show the confidence he claimed to have. I knew this, but probably the youngest of us did not. 

"I'm here for that", Sehun replied and they bowed goodbye.

Minseok approached me again, his countenance now looking sad and worried. 

"Please take care my friend, I hope to see you again." He cracked a weak smile. 

I pulled him into a hug and held back the tears that formed in my eyes. I whispered a _"we will"_ , assuring him of something I could never be sure of. He hugged me back and we stayed like that for a few seconds. I didn't want to have to say goodbye, not like this, with this uncertainty about whether everything would be all right. There was no other choice. He got into the car and sped off into the darkness. I continued to watch the road, the icy keys on the skin of my hand. 

"Maybe we should get some sleep", Sehun suggested. 

I nodded, feeling the exhaustion in my body. There was only one bed, which was big enough for two people, but Sehun insisted that he would sleep on the sofa and so he did. I mentally thanked him, I needed a comfortable bed, but I was not really in the mood to share it with a stranger. I woke up after a few hours and went straight to take a shower, before exploring the place by myself. The hovel had only four rooms. The living room and kitchen were joined together in a well-organized space, the simple bedroom containing only the bed and a bedside table, and a bathroom. The magic happened in the fourth room, which was actually a garage where the car was. Hidden there was a door in the floor, like a trap door, which led straight down to a staircase that seemed to be endless. In the underground there was absolutely everything. Armaments, clothes, frozen food. Everything. I thought I was in some kind of action movie. "Wow," was the only thing I could think of. Sehun woke up about an hour later while I was making food in the kitchen. His eyes blinked several times and his expression was tired. 

"Morning." I laughed at how he seemed closer to his joviality and away from his serious face at that moment.  
"Good morning, _hyung_ ", he replied after a few seconds, still stunned.  
"You need to take a look at the place", I emphasized, trying to pretend that I wasn't uncomfortable with the idea of having to live together without knowing anything about each other, or me not knowing anything about him at least. 

He gave me a slight smile and I felt some of the tension release. Maybe we would get along. Sehun disappeared for a while, probably settling in and exploring as I had done earlier. When he reappeared in the kitchen I was almost finished with my meal. 

"I made it for you." I pointed to another covered dish on the table.  
"Ah", he looked puzzled for a moment, and I laughed. He threatened to smile back, but lowered his gaze and took his neutral countenance. "Thanks, _hyung_." 

He sat down to eat and I watched my plate almost finished. 

"Sehun", I began, feeling that I had regained his attention, my thoughts again bubbling up. "I need to know about you, why you came to me." 

I stared at him and he didn't look away, seeming to think as he looked at me. He took a deep breath. 

"Have you ever heard of Oh Shin?" 

I shook my head in the negative, waiting for him to continue. Sehun began his explanation slowly. 

**  
.**

 **SEHUN**

 ****

When Xiumin came up to me in front of the house I swore that I would be unmasked right there and everything would go wrong. Instead, he said he trusted me to help Luhan. His tone sounded extremely sure, but I doubted that he really trusted me that way. I wondered why he didn't do an interrogation and concluded that after so many years of living in this environment, just like me, he didn't question himself much anymore.

Luhan asked about me the next morning and knowing that this moment would come, I decided to omit again my direct relation to the man who intended to kill him. I thought about telling the whole truth, but feared that this would drive him away. I decided that it was better to be close to help him, so I just told the whole context as if I were just an insubordinate employee. When the conversation turned to the death of his parents, I saw Luhan's eyes water. I confirmed his suspicions that they had not suffered a car accident, but a murder. We remained silent for a long time, I wished I could comfort him, but we didn't have that closeness. 

For the first two weeks I could not even relax, as I was always tense with the possibility of being found. I only really got a good night's sleep when I discovered the alarm system in the place. Everything was very well equipped to a level that I had not seen for some time. My father had a very high structure in Korea, but since we came to China he had to reduce some things in order to establish himself. Luhan's parents prepared everything very well. There was a lot of weaponry, besides all the other things. I prepared two backpacks with the essentials for an emergency escape, I chose two revolvers, among the many possibilities, with silencers and ammunition. They would be easier to carry. I put the backpacks in the trunk of the car. 

"Can you defend yourself?", I asked Luhan on the second day of his stay there.  
"I did martial arts for a while, but I stopped. I never understood why my parents were so insistent with me about it back then." He laughed without really seeming to think it was funny. I knew that he had taken classes, because my father had followed him all his life, but I preferred to ask about everything so as not to make him uncomfortable. "I play a lot of sports, so I have stamina." 

We decided that we would train every day, simulating situations that could happen. Since he had told me that he had never held a firearm, we started with those first. 

"Like this, _hyung_ ", I demonstrated to him for the second time how to take the gun out of a person's hand on the first day of training, while he aimed the unloaded gun in my direction. "Hand on the gun and arm at the same time, opposite directions, but with the same momentum. Try again." 

I took the pistol from his hand, my turn to point it at him. His hands crossed with a strong thrust, one toward the barrel of the gun and the other on my forearm, forcing the object and my arm in opposite directions. 

"Perfect." I smiled slightly to encourage him. "Harder now." 

We kept repeating the movement a few times. 

"Then you can do it this way", I explained, redoing the movement. 

I withdrew the revolver from his hand and then pulled his arm toward me, wrapping mine around him so that Luhan's back met my chest with a thud. The loop of my arm dangerously close to his neck, making possible a finish with a possible Hadaka Jime, or sleeper hold as the move was better known. Instead, my eyes met Luhan's over his shoulder and the closeness made me cringe. I let go of him by huffing, looking down at the ground and back up at him. I noticed him put his teeth over his lower lip before he let out a slight smile. 

"Splicing a sleeper hold will get you in control", I broke the silence and their expressions suddenly became worried.  
"Do you think we will make it?" His eyebrows showed the seriousness with which he was asking the question. 

I straightened my posture by putting my hands in the pockets of my jacket.

"In all sincerity, _hyung_ ", I paused, searching for some other answer, without success. "I don't know."


	3. No Exit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you enjoying being a little bit in Lu's mind too? What will happen now that they have to share a routine together?

  
The first weeks went by like this, filled with training, location scouting and planning. Luhan taught me what he knew and I taught him. We talked about it all the time, going over an emergency escape plan, discussing all the possibilities in our minds. I put an end to the cell phones when I discovered Walkie Talkies in the bunker and stuffed them into the backpacks in the car. We had no internet or phones there, which I thought was a wise decision, after all we didn't want to give away our location. However, we did find a radio and a collection of DVDs. Luhan seemed excited when he found it. He always seemed cheerful and, as time went by, even comfortable, except for a few nights when I found him quiet, thoughtful and distant. I always thought it best not to disturb him, but I knew he was also tense and afraid. My mind would not allow me to feel comfortable, frightened by the idea of letting my guard down, but as the days turned to weeks, I began to believe that we could spend a long time out there without being found. Our water source came from a well and there were enough supplies to live on for months.

Once, when I returned from a walk around the neighborhood writing things down on the map I had found with a compass, I heard music coming from inside the house. I walked slowly through the front door to find Luhan in the middle of the room... dancing. The late afternoon light filled the room with a luminous orange hue and the pop playing on the radio was accompanied by the rhythmic movements of the Chinese man's body, every little piece fitting into a choreography that I would judge as impeccable. For the first time during all those days, it seemed that I was really watching him and he looked "beautiful," I thought. My sexuality was a subject I had always had difficulty exploring. I had had experiences with both women and men, but nothing was ever really filled with feelings. My father would never accept it if he knew that I had had relationships with men; he showed his revulsion when he talked about it. It was difficult, besides the prejudice that surrounded the society I lived in, there was still the fact that my family was part of a patriarchal and violent environment. I knew Luhan had relationships with men hidden from his family, this was just a hunch for me at first, but after the death of his parents a year ago, he had become less careful about his encounters. Obviously he had no idea that he was being followed 24 hours a day by cameras.

Anyway, there, isolated from all of this, there was no pressure whatsoever that made me want to disguise that I was mesmerized by the precise movements of Luhan's body, starting to imagine what his skin looked like in places that the tissues always covered. He was startled and stopped dancing when he saw me watching. I opened my broadest smile without even rationalizing, as Luhan's face flushed. 

"You're really good at this", I finally commented, being sincere.

Luhan smiled, looking down before looking at me again. 

"Would you like to dance with me?", he surprised me.

Another thing I always hid from my father, and from anyone else, was how much I enjoyed dancing. I often followed the choreography of K-POP groups locked in my room. 

"No way." I ran back outside not revealing to Luhan my willingness to accept his invitation. I was nowhere near as good as him, not to mention the fact that seeing the boy dance like that caused me sensations that I feared were not the right time to feel. 

**.**

 ****

 **LUHAN**

"Don't you ever rest?", I asked, watching him sitting on the living room floor, absorbed in the map on his lap. 

He laughed without looking at me, and I noticed how much I liked it when he broke his mask of seriousness. In those moments and in the ones when he talked nonsense, which had become frequent, I could see on his face how much younger he was than me, but still Sehun seemed almost always so mature. 

"Look at what I found." 

I approached him with two glasses in one hand and a wine in the other. He finally looked away from the map to look at me, running his intense eyes over my hands, looking doubtful. 

"I don't know, _hyung_ , maybe it's not such a good idea.

He was thinking about the need for us to be on alert, I knew because he mentioned it almost all the time. It didn't take away from his reason, I was never one hundred percent confident and fearless either, but after three months of complete dedication to our escape plan and with few moments of rest, I believed we deserved the break. I made a sly expression and noticed his softening, a smile threatened to appear at the corner of his lips. Lately I had caught myself watching those lips a lot. Sehun was a very handsome boy, I had noticed this from the first moment, but my desires were beginning to extend more than compliments and this made me a little nervous. But at that moment I wasn't worried, Hun always seemed to respond to my subtle gestures and I wondered if he had ever thought the same things about me.

"Only if you're not even old enough to drink yet", I teased, realizing that he wasn't that much younger, but I was curious to know for sure.  
"I'm only four years younger than you, Luhan _hyung_ , and I'm more mature too", his sarcastic tone struck me, making me laugh. The corner of his mouth had lifted along one of his eyebrows.  
"Of that I doubt very much."

I poured the wine into each glass, noticing Sehun putting his duties aside. 

"You know I am", he continued with his sarcastic tone and pretentiously amused expression. "And handsome too, I am extremely handsome."

This dismissive-boyish version of dongsaeng appeared when the initial tension of forced coexistence eased and we created the minimum of intimacy. It seemed that I was only now really getting to know him.

"You're impossible." I laughed, reaching for one of the cups and watching him do the same with the other.

Sehun looked triumphant. We toasted before taking the first sip of our drink and I realized that we had not shared a long moment of complete distraction like this yet, without weighing risks. Not together. After random conversations about wine and food, our worries were on the agenda again. It was strange to have a normal and quiet life one moment, and suddenly in another to doubt everything you had ever lived, with the pressure of being in a constant state of evasion. I felt my chest tighten and sighed, trying to push the feeling away. 

"But let's not talk about that today." Hun seemed to read my thoughts, getting up and turning on the radio. He was always very attentive to my involuntary reactions and almost always knew how to act. 

I flashed him a smile, C-POP now filling the air in the room. My thoughts slid back to the day the boy caught me dancing, his intense gaze put me off when I noticed his presence and I remembered his wide smile before he complimented me. I tried to hide my bashfulness by asking him to dance with me, as much as I knew it was stamped on my face, and he shied away from the idea, but I could tell I sensed his willingness to accept. When we arrived here as complete strangers, I could not imagine feeling as comfortable as I did. Three months of daily coexistence changes a lot of things, although sometimes I still found that he knew much more about me than I did about him. Conversation back and forth, we were already opening the second bottle of wine from the cellar I had discovered. The reddish color was already taking over Sehun's face and he finally looked more smiling than serious. I could also feel the heat rising in my body. A famous K-POP song that I knew well began to resonate and to my surprise the younger Sehun began to follow the raps on the lyrics, singing in a unique timbre, his mouth lightly pigmented by the burgundy of the wine. I started to sing the rest of the parts. We alternated until the song was over. It was no secret how much the music and the dancing involved me.

"Who knew that the "serious" Sehun had musical skills?" I made quotation marks with my hands. 

I saw his eyes narrow into a smile and I looked at him in the same way.

"After I saw you dance, I surely expected you to have an equally talented voice", he answered unashamedly. 

I felt my face burn more than the effect of the alcohol already did. I rarely felt embarrassed by compliments, in fact I liked them very much, but when they came from Sehun something in me stirred, letting out a vulnerability about his words that my expressions gave away. He seemed even more radiant when he picked up on my body's reactions. The radio announcers stopped talking and a new song started, ironically enough it was exactly the song I had danced to the other day, although it was predictable since, as the presenters stressed, it was on the most requested list on the radio. I stood up, the alcohol that we were still ingesting preventing the shame from being greater than the desire. 

"Now you're going to dance too." I held one of Hun's hands, encouraging him to get up, but he stayed in place.  
"No, _hyung_." A shy little smile came to his face "I don't dance, I can't dance like you."

I let out a laugh at his apparent embarrassment. Sehun had moments of shameless courage, but he also couldn't hide when he was embarrassed.

"Come on, Sehun- _ah_!", I exclaimed, squeezing his hand more tightly. 

I paused for a moment in realizing how I had called him without thinking. Our eyes on each other, both of us seeming to absorb the idea of treating each other affectionately, I didn't want to cross any boundary that the boy didn't want to, and I was apprehensive. When his shy smile reappeared, my mouth curved happily towards him again. I insisted again with only a tug on his hand and a nod. He stood up. I celebrated and Hun seemed to become more embarrassed, putting his hand over his face. I started to move without fear now as I encouraged him and he started to relax. When he danced the first few steps without letting go, I knew he had a knack for it. I tied back some of the hair that was bothering my face up in the middle of my head as I watched Sehun give himself over to the choreography. It was good to see him so free of worry. 

After a while of moving our bodies and occasionally bumping into each other even though there was plenty of room in the room we dropped onto the couch. Hun rested his head on my shoulder and I leaned mine on his. We were silent for a while, only our breathing audible and the radio, which remained on at a lower volume. My body felt soft, partly from the wine and partly from the tiredness of the day. 

"You should sleep with me", I said, and Sehun made no movement, but the still wheezing sound of his breathing stopped abruptly. "Sleep in the bed, I mean", I tried to correct, laughing to myself when he let out a breath. "This couch is very uncomfortable."  
"I don't want to bother you, Lu", her voice and the affectionate nickname reached my ears.  
"You don't bother me." I turned my body to look at him, cupping my shell-shaped hand against the tip of his chin, removing it after I gave him a little wiggle and he laughed.  
"Okay", he agreeing in the end. 

****

**.**

I watched a crack in the bathroom door open where Sehun had probably finished his long shower. I had already taken mine and was sitting up in bed still unable to sleep, even though it was so late. Steam was coming out of the door, illuminated by the strong light from the room that contrasted with the darker room, where only one lamp was on. Finally the boy came out with his head down, turning off the bathroom light, fiddling with his wet hair and with only the towel wrapped around his hips. I held my breath. A few droplets of water still slid down his broad shoulders. The dim light from the lamp made me want to get closer to see him in detail, and I couldn't do anything else but wander my eyes around a few times before he noticed my presence and startled. I laughed and finally looked away from him to my hands. 

"Ah... S-Sorry _hyung_ , I didn't think you would be in the room."

His tone was extremely embarrassed and I turned back to face him with a smile on my face and an arched eyebrow. I liked the feeling of being able to disconcert the overconfident Sehun. He looked down and sideways, a chuckle on his face. 

"No problem", I said, pleased with the result. "I'll turn around so you can get dressed."

I listened to him quickly put on his clothes and felt the other side of the bed sink in as he joined me. I turned around again, tucking myself between the blankets. I realized that he was watching me and turned my face toward him. His countenance was now serious again, and his slightly furrowed brow gave even more intensity to his ever so striking gaze. 

"Is everything alright?", I asked, also without smiling.  
"I'm sorry", he said. "For putting you through all of this." "It is not your fault."

My words were sincere, but this seemed to accentuate his grief even more.

**.**

 ** **SEHUN****

I forgot everything during those hours with Luhan. We drank, talked, sang and danced, his body always so close to mine, every movement and every word consuming me. I have never been so vulnerable and so happy to feel this way. A version of me that hadn't been there for a long time was now always there ready to try to get a smile out of Luhan, which wasn't that hard. When we tired and collapsed on the couch, I laid my head on Luhan. My body longed to be close to him, I didn't want to move away, I wanted to hold on to that moment and never let go.

 ****

"You should sleep with me", he said, and my first impulse was to think about kissing him.

 ****

I felt vibrations all over my body with the idea pulsating in my mind and the heat intensified even more. I only realized that I was holding my breath as I let out the air when he explained what he really meant. The thought continued to torture me. I lay down on the bed and massaged my temples hard, trying to quiet my thoughts while Luhan went to take a shower. I felt guilty for thinking about the possibility and for not being able to hold back the sensations. The older man didn't even know the truth about me, about my father being the murderer of his family and my having followed it all helplessly for so long. I just wanted to let the whole truth out, Han would understand, wouldn't he? No, I couldn't even handle the idea of being away from the boy anymore. It was no longer just that I had committed to helping, I wanted to be there to protect him even though I knew he was perfectly capable of doing it all by himself with his wit and determination. What was happening to me anyway? Luhan was messing with my head and I could no longer know the threshold of how good or bad this could be.

 ****

As I stepped out of the shower so engrossed in my guilt and confusion I was startled by his presence and the vigor of his gaze upon me. I didn't expect him to be in the room knowing that I would soon be out of the shower, I thought he would be waiting in another room, but despite feeling a wave of bashfulness, part of me was ecstatic that he was right there. Once again my barriers were completely broken down when Han gave me that last look before replying to my apology, causing me to fantasize about gluing his lips to mine again. I put on my sleeping clothes, forcing myself to think about my apprehensions again, and lay down beside him. Reality relapsed on me again. I felt distressed, and I must have shown it, because he asked me if everything was all right. I answered truthfully, but extremely distant from the heap of things I wanted to say. His trusting so blindly that I had no part of the blame in all this only made my agony even stronger. I sighed and stopped staring at his worried face.

 ****

"Good night, Xiao Lu", I simply said in a failed attempt to express how much I just wanted to take him in my arms and escape from those circumstances.  
"Good night, Sehunnie." His voice invaded me and I let it fill my dreams. 

****

I had woken up well before him the other day. Luckily there was no hangover or malaise.

 ****

"I found the best thing in the world in our stash", I said, unable to hold a smile at the sleepy face with which Luhan appeared in the kitchen, scratching his eyes.  
"What?", he returned, still looking too sleepy to really pay attention. I held up two plastic cups with straws and watched him twist his head slightly to read the label on the package. "Bubble Tea?"  
"YEHET!", I confirmed enthusiastically, giving way to my playful side and he laughed and approached me. 

****

We had already commented at some other time that this was our favorite drink.

 ****

"How we didn't see this wonder before?" He took a glass to himself and I shrugged, still showing my amusement. His presence made me feel excited.

 ****

Suddenly the noise of the cans we had hidden in the yard connected to a wire sounded loudly. It was our improvised alarm. We brightened in sync, Luhan's startled look met mine and seemed to have washed away all sleep. I held out my open hand to him to calm him down, then motioned for him to get down while I did the same. We rehearsed situations like this a thousand times, went over and over elaborate plans to escape, but the dread seemed to insist on leaving my mind blank, we needed to calm down to act. I pointed in the direction of the garage in the back, and pulled out the gun I was carrying in the waistband of my pants. Luhan signaled for us to go together and we did so quickly, avoiding the windows, which were open, but had bars. Now everything was still quiet and the whole house was locked.

 ****

"I need to check, it might have been an animal", I whispered emphatically when we were in the garage, referring to the noise of the cans. "Do as we agreed, get in the car and be ready, don't wait for me if you hear anything suspicious, speed up and get out of here, okay?"  
"No." He held my arm as I threatened to leave the room. "It could all go wrong, let's just get in the car and leave."  
"Lu." I looked deep into his eyes, he seemed nervous. "You know we can't leave this place without making sure it's the last option, here is still our best chance."

 ****

He was still holding my forearm, paying attention to what I was saying, seeming to fight an internal battle. Then his hand moved to my neck, pulling my body against his. His movements were so brief that when our bodies pulled apart my brain was still trying to process what had just happened. Luhan had kissed me as quickly as he had moved away to get into the car.

 ****

"I trust you", he whispered before leaving.

 ****


	4. Crossroads

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quiet time for Hunhan to connect, but unfortunately what is good is short-lived, isn't it? hahaha  
> Will they need to put into practice the escape plan they have rehearsed so much?
> 
> This chapter has some very specific things and I brought some inspirations here to help the imagination:
> 
> [Steri-strips](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EORv5v7XsAAF0Jm.jpg)   
>  [Chinese canned meat](https://images-americanas.b2w.io/produtos/01/00/img/1644813/8/1644813841_1GG.jpg)   
> 

There were no cameras on site, after all to make them work would require an internet connection and electronic devices, which would make our location much easier to find. So I had to go for the "manual" way of doing things. I leaned against the side of the first window, with the gun ready, and took a deep breath before turning to face outward. The barrel of the gun followed my vision, but I couldn't find any movement. I went to another window and another, until I checked all the surroundings. Nothing, no shadows among the trees, all extremely quiet. This was a moment to feel a little relieved, but the uncomfortable feeling remained in my chest. I took the opportunity to pick up the map and compass I had left in the room the night before and put them in the inside pocket of my jacket. My heart was pounding in my ears. I breathed in and out a few times, I needed to get out and get a closer look.

I would be an easy target if the place was surrounded, but I knew my father, he wouldn't send all his men after a weak lead, and I was almost certain that his suspicions about that place wouldn't be right, after all he never knew that there was a hiding place prepared for Luhan. Besides, everyone who worked for him knew my face and I knew theirs. They wouldn't shoot me in the first instance upon noticing me, I was the son of their boss, I was the element of surprise. I peered again through one of the windows and then out the front door, which was the only option I had left besides the back garage, where Luhan was waiting in his car. My back was against the wall and I was holding the gun with both hands. I looked around before moving slowly, dragging my back across the concrete. Still nothing, _"maybe it really was an animal"_ , I thought as a single, quick rustle invaded my ears. I continued to move as quietly as possible, now in the direction of the noise, avoiding the foliage on the ground. I noticed that the sound I had just heard resembled the rustling of the foliage on the ground. It bubbled with anxiety. 

In the direction I went I would run into something coming from the right side of the house. I crouched down and waited when I reached the edge of the wall. I learned in the endless self-defense classes my father made me attend that people tend to look first to the level of their height and not down, meaning that if what was approaching was a standing person, the advantage would be mine. 

When a leg entered my field of vision I thought that my brain would not send the commands to the rest of my body because of the tension I was feeling, but I quickly tripped the man who was caught by surprise, as I expected. Soon I was over his body pressing a strategic point on his neck, which made him faint, but not before he shouted the name of another person I knew well, one of my father's best agents. I stood up, leaving the man I also knew lying on the ground beside me. Lee Jung-Su appeared with his gun pointed at me, I raised my hands above my head. 

"Sehun?", he asked, confused.  
"Hello, Jun _hyung_."  


_"Think, Sehun, think"_ , my mind went screaming. Lee had trained me for most of my life, was strong, and knew his movements as well as he knew mine.  


"My father sent me to investigate the place", I said, having a sudden idea. "In secret. I didn't know it was you."

He spoke slowly and solidly, still holding his hands up. 

"Hyeon here startled me."

I put a slight, forced smile on my face, pointing with my head at the man on the floor. Jung-Su didn't let his guard down, he was suspicious. I slowly bent down to leave my revolver on the ground. We were perpendicular to the far side of the garage. I wondered if I could get Luhan to listen to me, even though the hovel was small in size. At this point Han hadn't threatened to start the car, nor had he heard the noise of the automatic garage door, so he was probably waiting for a signal, as we had agreed. 

"The house is empty", I persisted in my performance, trying to take subtle steps towards the man. "I looked through everything already, I couldn't find him, but I think he was here."

He knew I meant Luhan and seemed to think for a few more seconds. I moved closer. I was "fishing" to win his trust and time, I knew my face showed confidence, I was good at it. I learned from my father what to do to persuade someone, it wasn't something to be proud of, but it was good to know I could put it into practice. Jung-Su lowered his gun minimally and I knew that I had distracted him, which also proved that my father still had no idea that I was involved, if this was the case his best agent would have that information. I took another step, now I was close enough to knock the gun out of his hand. 

" _XIÀNZÀI_!", I shouted suddenly, using all the air in my lungs, leaving Jung-Su confused for a second. 

I guided my body using all my strength, taking the weapon from his hand in the same way Luhan and I had practiced, but I couldn't hold it steady in mine, letting it fall further away among the leaves. The word _"now"_ said in Chinese, which Han taught me to pronounce, was one of our combined signals. We thought that using Luhan's native language would be effective in causing confusion, since most of my father's agents were Korean. It really worked. Jung-Su started a body battle against me as I listened to the car engine and the gate opening. I thanked Luhan internally for being able to hear me. 

A stab to one of my eyes made me lose my sight for a moment, bringing my attention back to the fight. Something hit the side of my face, causing a sharp pain. I yelped and noticed Lee again investing a small pocket knife he had in his hands. I held his arm this time. I thrust my knee against his stomach, which made his body move a little away. I took advantage of this to raise one of his legs and propel a strong kick at the same spot. The impact made him fall to the ground partially further away, but I unbalanced myself, falling as well. 

"C'MON!" Unexpectedly I heard Luhan's voice followed by a honking horn. 

I turned over my shoulder for a second to see the passenger door of the car open in my direction. He had positioned the vehicle with the side facing where I was standing and was waving urgently at me. I grumbled to myself, thinking that in this circumstance he was not supposed to be waiting for me. I stood up in a hurry and ran a few steps. Luhan stepped on the gas while I was still closing the door. Shots hit the window, which indicated that Jung-Su had reached for his gun again. I impulsively shielded myself with my arms, forgetting that the car was armored. Luhan did a movie-like drift to get the car onto the dirt road we came from, skidding and throwing dirt in the direction of my father's agent. I heard a few more shots blindly, but we were already speeding down the road.

"Damn it, Luhan! You shouldn't have waited", I protested angrily.  
"You're welcome", he simply said with a closed face as well, concentrating on the road ahead. 

I felt bad for a moment for being arrogant, but my concentration shifted to the burning sensation on my face. As I put my hand over it, I could only push it away, feeling the pain intensify even more. 

" _Aish_!" I looked at my fingers and there was blood, lots of blood, I felt dizzy.  
"Sehun!", I heard Lu call out as he put his hand on my chin. My vision blurred slightly, losing sight of him. "Stay awake, you hear? Sehun!" He shook my face and I saw him again. He was looking at me from the road. "I need you."

I inhaled deeply as I heard his words and tried to put my head between my knees, cramped in the space of the car. I propped my elbows on my legs. 

"All right", I managed to tell him as I felt one of his hands under my back. "Just drive."

His hand moved away and I still continued to fight the urge to faint until my senses began to return. I felt the contact of the older man again.

"I'm feeling better, Lu", I said in a more serene tone now, the adrenaline had subsided.

I lifted my body slowly to see if the feeling would return, but I remained only a little nauseous and in a cold sweat. We were still speeding along the dirt road. The car was punching because of the terrain.

"Thank you", I thanked him without looking at him. "For waiting for me and sorry for being rude."  
"It's all right, Sehun- _ah_." I noticed the tenderness and sincerity in his voice and felt his gaze on me for a moment. "We need to take care of this bleeding."  
"Let's look at it later, okay?", I said, putting a cloth over the wound and making a face.

We drove for a while longer, without slowing down. When we reached the asphalt we began to notice something different with the car. We decided to follow it to a village that the signs said was within walking distance. We stopped at some small street and noticed a small hole in the tire, like a tear. 

"Fuck." I was getting irritated. "The bullet must have grazed the tire."

I ran to get the backpacks from the trunk as I spoke, throwing one over my shoulder. There was also a tent, which I found in the bunker, along with a sleeping bag and mattress, all stored in a bag with carrying straps. I put it on my shoulders as well. 

"Sehun, look at me."

I kept hurrying to get the things. 

"SEHUN!", Luhan raised his voice and put his hands on my shoulders. I stopped and looked into his eyes. "Take a deep breath, we'll make it, but we need to help each other."

I agreed, realizing that I was trying to do everything myself. I handed one of the backpacks to Luhan, now more calmly. The strategy was to camp somewhere in the forest, as previously planned. It would be much safer than choosing a hotel or something. However, the initial plan was still to be able to rely on the car, but we would need to abandon it. In any case, it would be a clue about us that my father could no longer follow. We consented to take turns to carry the tent and started walking at a brisk pace towards the forest. We didn't talk, we were too apprehensive for that, paying attention to our surroundings. 

We walked for a long time after entering the forest. I paid attention to the road signs that marked where we were so that I could follow the map. Dense trees, bushes and damp earth under our shoes marked the place, but the terrain was also rocky in some spots, forcing us to do some light climbing. I began to feel dizzy again after having to struggle between rocks. The blood on my face had now dried and I could feel the throbbing bruise causing a migraine to take over my head in tandem. My legs wobbled. I felt Luhan's hand on my chest.

"We need to stop for a moment", he whispered. I thought about protesting, but the look in his eyes told me it was no use. 

He helped me put things on the ground. I sat with my back against a wide tree, long since we had seen the road. 

**.**

 ****

 **LUHAN**

Sehun looked tired. I looked at my wristwatch and it was already three and a half hours since we hurriedly left the hut. We had taken nothing but a few sips of bubble tea and Hun had lost a lot of blood. The first thing I did when he sat up was to look in his backpack for the first aid kit. I found some saline solution and gauze, which I wiped around his wound. He held my wrist lightly.

"Don't worry, Lu, I'll do it."

He could barely pay attention to his own movements. I stared at him with the sternest expression I could muster. Sehun was so stubborn, but I knew that when I looked at him like that he usually gave in. 

"Let me take care of you this", I added firmly. He didn't take his eyes off mine for a few seconds before nodding. 

I wiped all the dried blood from his cheek and neck, noticing also that his eye was slightly purple. When I proceeded to sanitize the wound directly by carefully applying and removing the gauze, he made a few faces that he would have laughed at had he not been so worried. I thought about our kiss earlier. It wasn't planned, I simply needed to show how much I wanted his presence, how much the thought of letting him go alone made me desperate. The attitude was impulsive, but full of truth. It was too fast, and I wish I could have made the distance between us smaller, but we didn't have that kind of time. I quickly left at that moment, without looking back, because I feared that if I watched him for even a second longer, I would not be able to continue. 

I decided to put this memory aside, we had other things to take care of. I placed two steri-strips in his face, made him swallow a pain pill with the water we had in thermoses and told him I was ready. I looked through the backpacks for food and found mostly food that took a while to perish and disposable cutlery that we would probably have to use more than once, since I knew the plan was to camp in the forest for a few days. I opened one that was labeled as canned meat, offering the food on the spoon to Sehun. 

"Eat this, we need to feed ourselves", I asked and he obeyed. 

I used the same spoon to bring a portion to my own mouth. I alternated between myself and Hun until we finished the can. I thought about everything that had happened and how I seemed to have spent too much time in that garage waiting for the younger man to give me a sign. I went over all the possible plans that we had agreed upon in my mind at that time, but always seemed to lack information. They all contained words in Chinese and each one would indicate a different sign for what to do next. When I heard him shout _"xiànzài"_ , I knew that there were armed people outside and that I was in trouble. I would need to go on without him, leave him behind, run away. I realized that I would not do this the instant I started the car engine and pressed the button to open the gate. 

I remember the tension in my muscles as I made the turn to the left side of the house, which was closest to the garage. Another turn to the front of the house. A man was lying on the ground, but I didn't see Sehun, so I accelerated a little more until I braked where I could see the expanse of the right side of the hovel. The passenger door faced exactly where Sehun was struggling against a man armed with a pocket knife. The opportune moment to get his attention came seconds later when Hun pushed the man away with a kick. 

I felt selfish saying that I needed him when we were already in the car and watching him struggle against his own body as he assimilated my words, but it was necessary for him to be awake for us to get where we were now. I thought about how vulnerable he looked when he was ill like that, yet he made a point of apologizing for being rude when he got into the car, something that by now I didn't even remember. Sehun was always so concerned and careful with the way he acted towards me and it warmed me up inside, I wanted him to feel my retribution when I could take care of him.

"We need to find a river or a spring, something like that", Hun said when he seemed to feel better, pulling again from his inside jacket pocket the map and compass that I had seen him study so hard.

I followed his instructions as we walked back through the site, at a much slower pace.

"Sehun, come see this!", I called out and noticed him hurrying after me.

After passing through some tall bushes, I faced one of the most beautiful landscapes I had ever seen. The trees gave way to a small waterfall that flowed between large boulders and fell in fluttering thin threads before reaching a stable level, which followed quietly between more boulders, illuminated by the sunlight. Below the modest waterfall was a cluster of crystal clear water, and you could see the bottom mixed with the brown hue coming from the sand. I was enchanted by the sight. There was no sign of human movement, as I had observed everywhere we went, but it was almost obvious, since we had come so far into the forest. Sehun smiled at me as we looked at each other, before turning back to the paper in his hands, like a cartographer writing down his perceptions. His knowledge came from all those days we had stayed in the house, he had dedicated himself completely to those drawings and notes. I came closer to the water bringing my hands to its surface, it was cold. The rest of the day was spent setting up camp not so far away and not so close to the river. The humidity would make us feel colder through the night anyway, but the edge of the water not only gave us direction, it kept us supplied with much needed fluid for our bodies. 

As I went to bed that night I thought I would have liked to take a bath in the clear water, but it was too cold by the time we stopped to set up camp and go over everything we had. The tent was a good size for the two of us, but I was alone wrapped in the thermal sleeping bag because we decided to take turns on a night watch and Sehun insisted on taking the shift first. I remembered when we reorganized the supplies, the backpacks stuffed with basic food and first aid stuff, plus a liquid soap, a toothpaste and two brushes. A change of clothes for me and another for Sehun. The cold sweaters were only the ones we already used. Sehun had thought carefully about what to bring so as not to weigh down the backpacks and at the same time survive for a few days, a week I would guess, if we rationed. However, soon we would need a new plan.


	5. Blood, Sweat and Tears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it! Sehun was beaten, but he was also beaten, right? What do you think? I loved writing Lu all fast and furious with the car maneuvers HAHA. Now let's sighing (of love or despair?) in this chapter.

Three days passed and the temperature was getting lower and lower. When I cleaned up in the creek that day I couldn't even enjoy it properly, due to the shivering that went through my body. We changed the location of our camp twice in order to remain safe. The fear still reached me, especially at night, I was tense with any noise I heard. I hated the watches, I felt alone in the tent and alone outside when it was Sehun's turn to sleep.

Hun was distant, we hardly talked even though we shared the same environment, he was absorbed in the map and I in something else. I missed our exchange of words and the younger Hun's smile, which had completely disappeared during those days. Our emotional state after what had happened was one of constant alertness, which made us tired and irritated, but I wished I didn't feel like he was pushing me away. I wanted to talk even if it was about our concerns, after all Sehun used to make me feel better, but he was not open to it. Every time I tried to bring up a subject he feigned indifference to follow up, and my conviction that it was only a pretense was because his eyes seemed desperate to remain in contact with mine. 

"Don't be so hard on yourself", I said that morning after redoing his dressing, as was customary once a day. It was the only time we were closest. Her eyebrows, which had previously been frowning, relaxed. I messed up her locks with one hand, giving her a weak smile. - You're already doing everything you can.

He continued to look at me with his neutral countenance, but the sparkle in his eyes remained, and he seemed constantly on the verge of communicating something to me, but he simply gave up. I would venture to say that day was the coldest we had ever faced after lying down and still having trouble maintaining a pleasant temperature in my body, I thought of Sehun sitting outside for his patrol. I got up then, opening the zipper that gave access to the inside of the tent. An icy wind hit me and I shivered. The younger man was hugging himself in an attempt to keep warm, but was still shivering. 

"Come in", I said, putting my hand on his arm without leaving completely, since I was close. He looked at me with no indication that he would agree. "C'mon, Sehun, get in. There's no way we can stay out there tonight."

I realized his conflict before finally agreeing. We didn't have a blanket, just the individual, thermal sleeping bag. I decided to cut its seam with a knife we had brought in our backpacks and made it into a blanket for the two of us. The flashlight that Sehun used outside now illuminated the wind-sheltered interior. We left the prepared revolvers in a corner.

"Come."

I lay down and lifted the makeshift blanket up, signaling for the Korean to lie down beside me. He seemed to want to protest again.

"Stop being childish", I showed my irritation. "You know that's all we have to cover ourselves with, and together it's easier to keep warm." 

If he was apprehensive about everything, I was too. This almost continuous silence from Sehun had begun to stress me out. He stood next to me, still completely still, his eyes and body facing me, while I stared at the ceiling of the shelter.

**  
.**

 ****

 **SEHUN**

I didn't know how to address any words to Luhan. After what happened at the house, I was sure my father would know I was involved, and this was one more way for him to get to Han. I doubted that Shin knew me as well as I knew him to be aware of what my strategies would be, yet I was desperate. I couldn't tell Lu what my anxieties were, because that would involve him knowing the part of me he wasn't yet aware of, and at the same time I hated myself for avoiding him. Every time he tried to approach me I felt guilty and undeserving of his affection. It also made me distressed at any kind of thought that might imply Luhan hurting himself in any way. Walking away was an automatic reaction to try to protect him from a bond he might regret, but I could see how much it started to bother him. I just wanted to justify myself and say everything that was on my mind and I threatened to do it several times, but fear always stopped me. 

That cold afternoon, as I sanitized myself in the river after Luhan had finished his time there, I reflected on his advice. Part of me wanted to stop this internal charging and give way to the softer side of me, but the disturbances continued to linger, even more so when I thought that there was a feeling between the two of us ready to surface. I dreamed about the moment of our quick kiss during those three nights, always giving different endings to the occasion. I was unable to interrupt my daydreams by watching him while I was distracted and missed his radiance as I had witnessed on some days in the house. When he called me to sleep together in the tent because of the cold, sharing that sleeping bag like a blanket, I wanted to object, but I was surprised by the need I felt to be close to him. It was amazing how Luhan could so quickly break down any wall I was trying to build inside myself. 

"I'm sorry, Lu", I said after some time of lying in silence next to him. I watched him open the eyes that he had just closed. "I'm sorry for being distant, I..." 

His gaze was intense, as if he had been waiting a long time for a moment like that.

"I'm afraid", I confessed. "Of what might lie ahead, of you coming out even more damaged than you could before I came into your life."

Deep down I was referring not only to the fact that Luhan was being chased, but also to what I was still hiding from him. He surprised me by turning around and placing a hand on my face, stroking it. It was the injured side, but it was already extremely better and almost healed. His eyes traveled deep into mine.

"You have to stop trying to protect me from everything. There is no way out of this. I know there are things you want to tell me, I see it every time you threaten to start a sentence, but you give up", he spoke firmly, but his fingers kept sliding over my skin. "But it doesn't matter, because I see that you have a good heart, Sehun- _ah_."

We looked at each other for a few seconds and an insistent tear ran down the length of my nose. I thought for a moment that I didn't understand how he trusted me so strongly, but in truth I knew the answer: Luhan was a great person, and because of this he could see the great in others as well. Other tears streamed down and Luhan gently dried them with his touch, before running his fingers through my hair. Unable to hold back any longer, I brought our lips together in one urgent movement. At that point, the desire I had to feel him was much greater than any guilt within me. My body was on fire with his presence, chasing away the cold that came from outside. 

Even though the initial meeting of our mouths was abrupt, Han slowly and almost teasingly asked for passage between my lips. I felt the tremors that were no longer caused by the cold, but by the warm, soft collision of our tongues in a rhythmic kiss, as if we needed to feel every millimeter of each other. His hand began to grip the strands at the nape of my neck, dragging me toward him. I responded to his movement, taking hold of my hands to guide myself over his body. He pulled the makeshift blanket over us to keep us warm. Our kiss picked up speed as his hands roamed over my abdomen, underneath my clothes. I started to trace a path up his neck, taking gentle bites, and heard him gasp close to my ear. A shiver ran through my sensations and the effect went under my pants. Luhan pushed my cold sweater back, which encouraged me to remove it and throw it into a corner. I admired for a moment his bright eyes and his slightly swollen mouth from our contact. He smiled. Luhan was charming. He pulled me in for another kiss, now on the collar of his shirt, before he began to unbutton it. I stopped only for a breath and it was his turn to watch me in admiration, his eyes roaming over my body like the time I had stepped out of the shower in that room, but now he was biting his lower lip. Our breaths were already ragged.

"You're so fucking hot", he said without fear, and I smiled thinking about how his every word made me delirious. 

Lu moved his body, leading me to change positions. I helped him onto my lap, with one leg on either side of me, squeezing his hips and thighs. Luhan finished removing my shirt and I sat there in complete contact with his contagious energy, as I kissed him and slipped my hands under his clothes. He helped me through the process of undressing him and wow, was he beautiful. Every detail of his body made me even more excited. 

"You're perfect", I said breathlessly after running my lips along his body and stopping to look him in the eyes. 

He laughed, radiant as I liked, putting one of his hands over my mouth as if to ask me not to say anything more. I took the opportunity to take his fingers between my teeth and my tongue. Heat emanated from our bodies as we lay together again, but still, after getting rid of our underwear, I threw the sleeping bag over us, as he had done before, and moved down his body, kissing and sucking lightly on his skin until I reached his erection. Luhan moaned as my hand began to work its way up and down. His body thrust against me as I sucked him slowly, his hand closing in my hair. He moaned my name and that made me feel my own member pulsing with excitement, but I wanted to make him climax first. We had no protection or lubricant there, so I knew it would be best to keep it that way. His hips moved in rhythm with the thrusts of my mouth, his hand in my hair, and his moans of "keep going" encouraged me to keep the pace up. I knew when Lu was close to orgasm, so I tightened my hand on the base of his member. The sounds he emitted became seductively indistinguishable and I felt his taste invade me. His movements now slowing and his fingers loosening on my head.

I quickly wiped my lips as I approached his face level again. Everything about him was glowing and it wasn't just the sweat that was now present on his body as much as on mine. Luhan immediately engaged in a kiss and moved to grab my member, which was still painfully aroused, begging to be touched. I wanted him so badly, I wanted him so badly. I now let out moans between pauses in our kisses, never really pulling away. Soon he had me underneath his body and trailed down my abdomen. The tip of his tongue circled my glans a few times. One of his hands squeezed the side of my abdomen.

"You're torturing me", I desperately begged him to use his whole mouth. 

He smiled with satisfaction before moving on to do what I expected and put me off. He gradually quickened his pace and I could feel him dominating me. My fingers were digging into his shoulder and I lost my breath as I felt the movement of his mouth, tongue, and hands. 

"I'm going to cum, Lu", I said in a moaning whisper after a while, almost clamoring for it. 

Luhan stimulated me even more and I could feel all my muscles contracting until they went through an intense ecstasy. I moaned loudly and Han slowed his movements, my body surrendered. When he came close to my face again, I applied a tender kiss, feeling the remnants of my own taste in his mouth. We ended the kiss with a few kisses and smiled. The older man laid his head between my arm and my chest, entwining one of our legs. I bent the arm that held his head so that I could stroke his hair. Our breaths were still ragged. My mind was already yearning for more moments like this with him, but I tried to calm it down to enjoy that space of time when Luhan was snuggling into me. The soft smell of the liquid soap we used in the bath hovered in the air. After a while the cold started to bother our bodies again, and we got dressed. We lay down again, entwined, to sleep. 

"Good night, Xiao Lu." I kissed the top of his head.  
"Good evening, Sehunnie." 

It was cold at dawn, but by noon the sun was strong. I only detached myself from Luhan's body at that moment, while he was still sleeping. I decided to go to the small waterfall to bathe, and it didn't take long for Luhan to appear there too, smiling and watching me from afar. I smiled back, I was immersed up to my shoulder in water, as I was crouched down in the deepest part of the place. 

"Do you want to swim?" I quickly raised my eyebrows, giving a completely different meaning to the phrase.

Luhan looked down shyly for a moment, his teeth on his lower lip, I loved it when he did that. He undressed as I stared at him brazenly, the way his body moved and the sunlight making each of his shades come alive was a discomfiting delight to my eyes and feelings. Soon his body was glued to mine again. The water was cold, but the strong sunlight was concentrated there, compensating for the sensation. 

"You drive me crazy", I confessed after a few kisses and the rubbing of our skin. He smiled and pulled me close again, biting my lips tenderly between kisses. 

Our hands started to play on our bodies again. My worries were so muffled when we were together, I felt it coming from him too. It was as if there was no longer a world around us. We forgot about the impending trouble for a while, but that late afternoon we were forced to think again. A strong storm seemed to be approaching. The clouds were frighteningly heavy and low. 

"We can't stay here." Lu agreed with me, staring at the sky. Loud thunder was already invading our ears. We gathered our things in a hurry, but leaving nothing behind. I put the gun in the waistband of my pants and watched Luhan do the same with his. I didn't want to have to go on to the next plan so quickly, which I had been devising in my mind since we arrived. It wasn't as safe as the plan to be in the forest, but that rain could be extremely dangerous in a terrain we hardly knew. 

**  
.**

Zitao looked surprised as he opened the door to his house. He looked from me to Luhan a few times. The rain was falling heavily on our shoulders, and I shivered.

"I know we haven't exactly talked these past few months", I shouted louder than the sound of the water. "But I need your help, _hyung_."

He remained thoughtful for a few moments and then gave us permission to enter. He gave us towels and a change of clothes to take a hot shower. I explained our situation to him while Luhan was in the bathroom. The only plan I could come up with in those days was to look for him. Tao was the only one I could consider a friend in life, the one I could count on. He is Chinese, like Luhan, but he lived in Korea for a long time during his teenage years and at that time we became very close. It was a time of many discoveries and my first kiss with a man was with him. A few years ago he had moved back to China because his mother was battling an illness and he wanted to be close to her. Our relationship became more superficial with distance, I no longer knew anything more about his life after a few years, but I could feel the affection that still existed when we exchanged a few words by message. When Tao heard that I was in China we spent a nice day together and he told me to count on him for whatever I needed, and I said the same with sincerity. I missed the days when we were very close and always had playful fights.

In the end, it turned out that we really needed each other's help. Zitao had told me without any pretense that he was in a constant struggle to get money to help his mother with her treatments for the disease, which are very expensive in this country. I decided to pay for what she needed at that moment, disbursing everything I had earned from my father until that day. He did not refuse because he knew that his mother needed it, but he stressed several times that he would like to give something back. This was a few months after I arrived in the country and our routines did not allow us to meet or talk much more. The last time I spoke to him was when I needed him to deliver the package to Luhan's building and he did so without question, as he insisted that he "owed me one". We didn't talk much that day, sticking at most to brief "how are you?" questions, as I was too desperate with my plans to help Han. Now he was informed about everything that had happened, but he didn't seem as perplexed as I imagined he would be. He knew how things were with my father, I never hid this from him, but I expected a more surprised reaction. Instead, he looked sad and vague.

"I'm sorry to involve you again, TaoTao", I ventured to call him by the nickname I used when we were teenagers. 

He finally cracked a weak smile that seemed to strain into existence. Something didn't seem right, but I deduced that maybe it was just too much stuff to digest. 

"It's okay, Sehuna." He patted me on the back, also calling me by the ridiculous nickname he gave me when we were younger. "I have always admired how brave you are."

It was the only moment that he seemed really sincere about what he was saying. He was so different from the Tao I had met months ago, his face lit up with possibilities that he wanted to achieve. We talked some more, I asked about his mother, and he told me that her condition was now stable. After I showered, Zitao made dinner for all of us. We chatted about random things and he and Luhan seemed to have gotten along very well. I could see the boy I knew in a few glimpses there, but despite the more relaxed moment, his expression always swung to a certain sadness and tension. We helped Tao arrange a small mattress on the living room floor; it was the only one he had, so one of us would have to sleep on the couch. I thanked him again sincerely and he just nodded with the same weak smile as before, leaving the room. I stayed on the couch and left Luhan with the mattress, one of my hands hanging out to reach his. We played affectionately with our fingers.

"It seems that you have known each other for quite some time", Lu said.  
"Yes, I met him when I was fifteen and we were very close until I was eighteen, then he went back to China and we hardly spoke during those three years. I met him again when I came here."  
"He seems like a very good friend."  
"He is." Luhan smiled at me. "But I feel he is different from when I saw him months ago, sadder."

My thoughts wandered back to Zitao's expressions. Luhan just respected this moment in silence. Then we decided to rest with a seal of our lips as a goodnight wish. I awoke to points of light hitting my face through the curtains. I blinked a few times. Luhan was sleeping. It was still dark. I sat up and froze when another beam of white light came through one of the windows. "Not again, shit," I thought and shook Luhan urgently when I finally realized they were flashlights. He opened his mouth to say something, his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes narrowed. 

"What...", he started, and I motioned for him to be quiet. His awakening was immediate. 

We armed ourselves with revolvers. I took Lu's hand and we crouched down to the side of a window, leaning against the wall, I peeked quickly through the fabric. Men surrounded the place with flashlights and guns pointed in every direction. _"No, no, no"_ , I thought. I turned to Luhan beside me and knew that my defeat was evident just from the way he looked at me.

"We are surrounded", I whispered almost inaudibly, obviously confirming the suspicion on Luhan's face. "I don't know how they found us so quickly."

I really didn't expect this. My father didn't know Tao, he had never seen us together as far as I could tell. We remained silent for a while, trying to find our way out of the maze that the situation had become. 

"Let's go out together", I whispered again more to myself than to Luhan, my mind working. "And say that we surrender, they won't shoot you, they have no orders to kill you. Shin will wait for you to be taken to him, he doesn't do the real dirty work, he just likes the _grand finale_ ", I spoke exactly as my father would describe it. "Tao will be safer inside here." I paused for breath. "Then I will create a distraction."  
"What?", Han asked in distress.  
"I'll be the bait, while you run away. You run much better than all of them, I've seen your endurance in our training, it's impeccable, that's your advantage. I'm going to draw my gun and make a mess, I'm going to run to one side and you to the other."  
"No! Are you crazy? They will shoot you!", his whisper was fierce.  
"They won't."  
"How can you be so sure of that? "  
"Trust me."

I finished unable to spit out the truth about being the son of the assassin, not least because I still needed his trust. I knew how Shin liked to "play", he would have us kidnapped. He liked to torture before killing, it gave him a sense of power.

"They will come after me, Sehun, we are surrounded", he said sensibly.   
"Believe me, they will want to get me as much as they want to get you." Now I was looking directly into his eyes, one of my hands was on the back of his neck and our conversation was hurried, we didn't have much time. "Their attention will be divided, they don't expect us to split up."

Luhan's eyes signaled his desperation, filling with water. I would say that mine were starting to burn too, but I held back the tears and saw that he was doing the same. I knew that his mind was hovering over the fact that we had to separate, maybe forever, because mine was stuck on the same issue, but there was no better plan, no other way out. It was the only chance we had. Luhan kissed me with vigor and affection. I would never let him risk being captured along with me, and I knew that he hadn't even considered the idea for this reason, we had come this far already knowing this. We really needed to create a scene, to make them believe that we would not be separated. So I put our hands together again and we got up to leave. My gun in my hand, but kept beside my body and Luhan's hidden in the waistband of his pants. We walked across the balcony as everyone lined up in startle to keep their guns in our sights. Jung-su was in the front line, right in front of us. My hand tightened against Lu's, in an attempt to reassure him and at the same time to feel every last part of his body until the last second. 

"It's time to give up, don't you think?", Lee said. 

I filled my lungs and pointed the revolver in their direction. I let go of Luhan's hand and he knew it was time to run. I fired point-blank, without really aiming at anyone, moving in the other direction. The men looked for places to take cover, they didn't fire back as I had predicted, at least not without getting a clear shot. They needed us to be alive, the weapons in their hands were more for emergencies and to cause fear. I looked quickly in the direction Luhan had run and realized that he had managed to gain distance down the length of the street. I felt an excruciating pain and screamed, falling to the ground. I put my hand over the site of the pain and felt the hot liquid. The shot had hit my leg in my moment of distraction. Something hit the back of my head hard and dark spots appeared in my vision, while a ringing sound reached my ears. The dizziness messed with my perception of reality and I daydreamed, the last thing I remember is Luhan running in the distance while crying exploded in my eyes.


	6. The beginning of the end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Love Shot is coming to an end and I don't know if I'm sad because it's ending or excited to be able to reach a conclusion to a story I'm so fond of! I hope you all felt the same love that HunHan feels for each other ❤️

"T-Tao?", my voice faltered as I opened my eyes slowly, my blurred vision giving way to the silhouette of the boy standing in front of me. "Where are we?" 

My head ached vigorously in the posterior region and there was also a stabbing pain in the extension of my right leg that made me feel sick. I realized that I couldn't move, I was tied to a chair in a small dark and shabby room. Zitao's eyes were watery and his expression was desperate, but he remained quiet.

"What..." My mind was beginning to remember what had happened. "You."  
"I didn't want to, Hun", he broke the silence in a guilty tone.

He glanced at the closed door beside him before approaching my face. He looked upset. My mind slowly pieced together the memories. I had probably fainted when I was hit on the head, after my leg was shot off, in front of Zitao's house. I felt a torrent of frustration rise like a swarm through my body. Huang had turned us in. 

"I didn't want to", he repeated in agony. "He threatened my mother." 

My mind fogged over, confused about how to digest the new information. I thought Tao would start crying, but the narrow door opened with a bang. 

"OH SEHUN!"

My father's theatrical voice invaded the room, echoing in its emptiness, as Zitao returned in distress to his starting position. I never hid from him the things my progenitor was capable of. Shin squeezed Tao's shoulder with one hand, a beaming smile on his face.

"Your friend was a great help", his tone was ruthlessly triumphant.

He patted the boy, who remained holding back his own tears. Now I understood why my friend was there, Shin had put him there as proof that he had won, that I was alone in this. The anger I initially felt toward Zitao transferred completely to my father. He knew well how to manipulate a person's mind, and the vulnerability in Huang's love for his mother was the perfect ploy. I wouldn't blame him at all, my mother had also left us long ago and I could fully understand Tao's despair at losing someone he loved dearly. I felt even more guilty for involving him. He just shook his head negatively as if trying to tell me everything I already knew. 

"You got what you wanted, Dad." The way I called him, which had once been affectionate, came out with a debauched contempt. My eyes locked earnestly on the face of the man I once considered family. "Let him go."

Possibly Zitao expected another reaction from me, for his grimace that held back the crying intensified. I thought maybe he felt as guilty as I did, but I knew it wasn't his fault. The blissfully insensitive expression on Shin's face vanished.

"I'm leaving him only because I am a man of my word, Sehun, and he is not the one I care about."

He pushed Huang toward the door and Huang looked back at me. I nodded for him to go on his way and he then disappeared into the doorway. 

"Where is Luhan?", I continued to confront my father, my voice filled with the hatred I felt. 

The debauched laughter on Shin's face returned. This was what he wanted: the torment stamped on my expression. It was not my intention to give him this taste, but I couldn't help it. 

"Did you really think you could save the boy?", my father sneered. "Stupid!"

I felt the force of his fist on my face. The room spun and the taste of blood spread to my palate. His first words came muffled to my ears as he grabbed and shook my face hard. The anger and revulsion added to the pain wouldn't let me think of what to say. 

"I gave you everything, Sehun! EVERYTHING!", he raised his voice. "You could succeed me, achieve much more than I did, but you turned out to be this disappointment, this backstabbing faggot piece of shit who wasn't even good enough to save the little doll." 

It was silent for a few seconds and the nausea intensified in my stomach. I found out the hard way that, as much as I knew him, my father was still completely unpredictable. I didn't anticipate that he would have gone to Huang, or even that he knew of its existence. Surely, Shin was paying more attention to my life than I imagined. I lowered my head, staring at my leg that had something tied on it only to precariously contain the bleeding. The guilt weighed on my shoulders like tons, for Zitao, for Luhan and their families, for not having taken a stand against my genitor much sooner. 

"I bet you didn't tell him you were with me when I killed his father."

Shin had gained my attention again and realized. 

"Isn't that right, Sehun?", he paused uneasily, seeming to enjoy the moment. "It didn't count that you pulled the trigger."

He was playing with my psychology as I was sure he had done with Tao, but as much as I knew that, my body twitched with the clear memory I had avoided all that time. Not only was he the son of the guy who had killed Luhan's parents, but he had also pulled the trigger on the projectile that took the man's life a year ago. Luhan had no idea about any of this. Shin had subjected me to it. After he had taken the Chinese woman's life, he put the gun in my hand pointed at the guy with the hood over his head. That had been part of his idea to include me in his absurd spells. I was about to put the revolver down, after holding it against my will for some time, when my father's hand grabbed mine and made me shoot. I remember yelling a "no" and hearing Shin say that I was "too soft" and needed to learn. I shook my head several times trying to push the memory away.

"YOU MADE ME!", I shouted through my teeth. Stormy tears filled my eyes.  
"So he doesn't know."

Shin finished in a thought almost to himself, leaving the room. I knew he would use everything against me somehow. I turned my head beside my body to gape. I wished Luhan was far away and never knew about these things, I wanted him to remember only the part of me that I allowed him to know.

  


**.**

 ****

****

****

**LUHAN**

I took off at a desperate run as soon as Sehun let go of my hand. I crashed hard into the barrier that two men tried to make to stop me. I stumbled through, and for a moment I thought I would fall to the ground and end the whole plan, but I regained my balance, forcing my legs to speed up. Hun's revolver had a silencer, just like the one I had stored in my waistcoat, so the gunshots were inaudible, at most the click of the pistol, which after a few meters I could no longer hear. But Sehun's voice broke the stillness into a painful scream, which reached my ears faintly, and that's how I realized how far I had gone, because the more I ran, the greater the feeling of not leaving the place. I didn't dare look back, I didn't want to know what happened, if I did I would probably give up everything. Tears lodged in my eyes, insistent again. I held them back with a contraction of my face, keeping my focus on hurrying my steps even faster.

When it didn't look like I was being followed anymore, I turned into a hidden alley and leaned against a wall, trying to get air into my lungs. It was too cold and each inhalation felt like a sharp blade in my respiratory system. I gave in to crying, no longer knowing whether it was because of the rage inside me or the hopelessness. I took several deep breaths, still not feeling that the oxygen was enough. I needed to think about what to do. Just then, a group of four men appeared on the scene, cornering my exit. The same two men I had clashed with back there were among them. They pointed their guns at me and my arms went up in the air immediately, my breathing was starting to become less ragged. I remembered Sehun saying that they wouldn't shoot, that it was just an intimidation move. They asked me to kneel down and I did. I waited for them to approach. _"It's like a dance, Luhan"_ , my own thoughts whispered and I let the coldness about those people overwhelm me.

When they were close enough, I rotated my body, putting my weight on one leg and extending the other leg brutally. I knocked two of them down and stood up, now snatching the gun from the nearest one - the way I had learned from Sehun - and was fascinated when I promptly pulled his arm, twisting it, as naturally as in the moments when I imitated choreography. I locked him in a lion kill that made him crouch in groans of pain. I removed the gun from the waistband of my pants and aimed it at the man's head, making him my hostage. The training and martial arts really had an effect after all. However, what did me the most good at that moment was the rage that was growing inside me like a dragon about to burst into flames. I hated it all. I wanted my parents back, I wanted my life back, I wanted Sehun back. I thought they would hesitate because I had trapped their companion, but I misjudged their relationship because it had no effect at all, they didn't care. It was only moments before the other man standing up pushed me away with a punch to the face. I hit the ground and lost the gun so that I could propel myself to keep from falling.

I tried to start running again, but one of them pushed me toward the concrete with his palm narrowing at my neck. I tried to kick him or bring my hands to his eyes, but his body pinned me against the wall. I roared with hatred as I felt the oxygen drain away, and at that same instant a motorcycle braked facing the alley, its tires skidding and its headlight sharply brightening the scene. Four sharp shots reverberated, ringing in my ears, precise. All four men went to the ground, all hit in fatal spots in the skull region. I coughed several times, already preparing to run away when Xiumin's face made itself present as he opened the visor of his helmet without getting off the bike.

"C'MON, HAN!" 

He nodded, looking to the side and handing me an extra helmet. I hurriedly climbed on the rump, holding on tightly to Minseok as he advanced at ferocious speed. There was no way to talk with the biting wind against our faces. I kept my visor closed and waited, the image of Xiumin fatally hitting the agents without a second thought now struck me with strangeness, I didn't know this part of my friend. Soon my reveries brought the sight of Sehun, causing me to lose track of the impact I had just witnessed to find sensations of concern. _"Please be alive"_ , I pleaded quietly.

  


**.**

When I looked in the small bathroom mirror I noticed that there was blood dripping from the corner of my mouth and splashing all over my face. I began to wipe myself with a damp towel. I was in Xiumin's hiding place, a building that appeared to be abandoned, but adequately maintained inside. 

"How did you find us?", I asked, approaching Minseok in the kitchen where he was preparing something for us to eat. My stomach churned and I didn't know if I could eat anything at that moment, but I didn't touch the subject.  
"After I left you, I had to disappear. To hide, to change identities again. Oh Shin really came after me when he lost sight of you, I was his first clue. I knew that as long as he was chasing me, I would be far from the reality of where you were, so I lived each day in a different location, giving clues to where I was on purpose. I almost bumped into your agents more than once, but it was working out, until", he paused in his explanation, looking directly at me, his eyebrows furrowed. "After about three months, they just disappeared off my trail."  
"They found us in the house at that time", I concluded, and he silently agreed.  
"I knew that Shin wouldn't give up until he found you, so I predicted that the worst had happened. I went back to the cottage and couldn't find you. I decided that the best chance to find out what had really happened was to follow in the killer's footsteps. I found out everything about him and about each of his main agents, and it was in the midst of this research that I found out about Sehun."

It was my turn to frown, I wondered what he meant by that sentence, but I didn't interrupt him, I knew he would complete the speech. 

"He is Oh Shin's son."

Xiumin continued to stare at me, but I didn't show any reaction. The information reached my hearing, but refused to reach my brain. 

"His full name is Oh Sehun", my friend reaffirmed his certainty and my understanding finally began to connect the dots.  
"That's why he told me that they would want to capture him as much as they wanted to capture me", I reflected aloud, and Minseok nodded, even though he had not witnessed the moment I was talking about.  
"My first impulse was to think that it was a trap. That Shin got his son to come forward so it would be easier to capture you, but then I rationalized that if that was the case, they wouldn't have spent three months chasing me. I have no idea why Sehun wanted to help you."

I was too stunned to really pay attention to what Xiumin was saying, all my intellectual capacity turned to disconnected memories of everything Sehun might have ever said.

"He always seemed distressed about something", I finally said.  
"We would never have trusted him if he had told us", Minseok stated.

I could only agree. I knew it was true, I didn't know Hun then, I didn't contain the feelings that now took possession of my reality. A sadness invaded me that he had kept something so great from me. I had always tried to be so sincere with Hun that it felt as if I had been betrayed in some way, but at the same time a twinge of hope was growing inside me. Deep down, this was not something relevant enough to drain my affection, after all the dongsaeng would never gain my trust otherwise. And Oh Shin would not end his own son's life so quickly, would he? 

"You think", I began, but took a deep breath before continuing. "That he is still alive?"  
"Sometimes it scares me how much I know you, Hannie." He laughed weakly, I didn't understand his answer, so I let him continue. "You're thinking about going after him, aren't you?"  
"He has done that for me so far, Min."  
"He did it to keep you safe! If you go after him everything you have faced will have been useless, it has become something personal for Shin", Xiumin said firmly. "Before it was about his father, he just wanted to finish what he started, but now that his own son is involved." He shook his head in rejection. "He will want to see you beg. You've just met your greatest weakness."

He referred to Sehun as my weak point and he was right. Looking for him with the possibility of being caught would break everything I had agreed with the younger man about keeping me safe, would make his efforts worthless. However, everything had been transformed in the time I had spent with him. I would not be able to run away and live a normal life anywhere else, knowing that I left him to be killed. "You can't", Minseok began again.  
"I LOVE HIM!", I interrupted, nervously. Then I softened my expression again, putting a hand on my companion's shoulder. "I'm sorry."

It was the first time it had ever come out of my mouth. In a way I knew it was there, that the feeling had become much greater than any description I could think of giving. Still, it was a confession that hadn't even happened internally, and now I spelled it out uncontrollably, because it was the only valid argument to show how hard I needed to try. Xiumin sighed heavily, placing a hand over mine. 

"There is a way", He said after a quick reflection, making my chest fill with an almost desperate expectation. "But it may be that no one will come out of this alive."


End file.
